92 



FIG. 68. Deschampsia fiexuosa (L.) Trin. TUFTED HAIR-GRASS.— a, b, 

 spikelets; c, floret from same. Figs. 154 to 158 in Bui. 7 illustrate other species 

 of Deschampsia. 



68. DESCHAMPSIA Beauv. Agrost. 91, 1. 18, f. 3. 1812. Spikelets 2- (rarely 3-) 

 flowered; rachilla hairy, articulated above the empty glumes and prolonged 

 beyond the upper floret as a hairy bristle. Empty glumes 2, thin and scarious, 

 acute or obtuse, nearly equal: flowering glumes subhyaline, 4-nerved, trun- 

 cate, and more or less regularly 2- to 4-toothed, awned on the back: awn 

 slender, twisted below. Palea narrow, 2-nerved. Grain oblong, included 

 within the floral glume and palea, but free from them. Annuals or peren- 

 nials, with flat or convolute leaves, and rather small, shining spikelets in 

 terminal or lateral, narrow or loose panicles. 



Species about 20, in the cold and temperate regions of the northern hemi- 

 sphere and on the high mountains within the tropics: one in Australia; North 

 American species, 9 or 10. 



